I just read that the Grand Canyon Glass bridge project has opened to the public. This is insane! The glass bridge is over 4,000 feet above the floor of the Grand Canyon and Colorado river. Check out the artist rendering of what it will look like when it is complete from 2005 (i couln’t find any good pictures of it). The walk is being built by the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation on the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the south rim of the canyon. You can visit this place by driving a few miles (120) from Las Vegas. Personally, I would rather be playing blackjack…but if I am in the area…I’d check it out from the parking lot.

This absolutely amazes me. A couple of years ago when I was in Toronto, I did the tourist thing and paid $20 to go to the top of the CN Tower which is 1,815 feet to the top. It gives a great view of the local airport and all of Toronto and also has a glass floor for those of you that are daring enough to walk over it just to look down. Now, I am afraid of heights, but have control of that fear in most day-to-day situations. Walking over a glass floor at this height? Well, I don’t really consider my fear of this a failure in my day to day application of mind over matter.

Even looking at these pictures reminds me of the butterflies that were doing fly by’s of my entire body the entire time I was at the top. The only advantage I can see the Grand Canyon Glass Floor Bridge having is that there really isn’t anything around to put your height into perspective. Still, for those of you that like stuff like this, you are all insane.

Poor monkey. Not really. Kuta is the perfect height to pet while sitting down…on the couch or in the home office. His head is at a perfect petting level. Monkey gets plenty of attention but I always joke about monkey needing stilts to get as much love as kuta. Before I had the chance to buy her stilts…she went on an African Safari and sent this picture back to us entitled: “I’m not too short, bitches”

I surf blacks beach early in the morning before the prevailing onshore winds kick in whenever I get the chance. For me, the onshore winds ruin the surface conditions of the waves and makes them more difficult to ride…but for the paragliders, it creates a heavenly updraft off of the cliffs that paragliders can float in all day long.

Because of these updrafts, the Torrey Pines Glider Port (also an access point to hike down the cliff to the beach to surf) is always packed with hang gliders and paragliders waiting to take their turn in the updraft. Watching them fearlessly waddle off the 500ft cliff into the updraft amazes me everytime. I am too much of a wuss to do this:

Torrey Pines Paraglider

I think, this headline is the reason why it scares me so much: German paraglider survives storm that killed Chinese competitor

The tragedy occurred in Australia where hundreds of competitors were practicing for the World Paragliding Championships. A strong thunderstorm swept in and took many practicing competitors by suprise. The updrafts from the storm caught two competitors by suprise and uncontrolably swept them up to the heavens. One man was swept so high that he died apperently from a lack of oxygen and extreme cold and was found 47 miles away from where he took off.

The second competitor, the one that lived, was pulled up to an altitude of 32,000 feet where she lost consciousness for nearly 30 minutes. She must have lost some altitude and awoke regaining control of her glider and was able to land safely with just some minor frost bite.

I know everyone thinks surfing is dangerous because you can drown or hit the bottom real hard…but paragliding is just nuts. Thirty-Two thousand feet is 3,00 feet higher than Mount Everest which has taken the life of over 186 people trying to assend it it is so high! I am going to leave flying to the birds and rejoin my buddy flipper in the ocean.